Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Happy Christmas everyone (now with added Den!)

Christmas morning started well with us watching the animated version of Father Christmas, released in 1991 with music by someone very special - my husband, Mike Hewer! Now I'm off out for a run before the day gets into full swing (wearing red and white stripey tights and a sparkly Santa hat to keep up my tradition of looking very silly at this time of year).

Our Christmas tree 2012

Here's our Christmas tree bedecked with an eclectic mix of some of our favourite ornaments collected over many years. Lots of them are handmade by me and or mum. All of them have memories attached. Although I put up the majority of the decorations around the house by myself, it's always been a tradition that Mike and I dress the tree together which makes it extra special.

This year we had to buy a new stand as the old one had rusted away. It has a large reservoir for water to keep the tree fresh for longer. It didn't take Tinker long to suss it out as a new drinking bowl!

Tinky drinkies!

The weather may not be very festive (ie blowing a gale and raining) but I managed to dodge the showers when we first got up to take a few photos of plants and shrubs in flower so here they are:

This little Parahebe has been flowering for months

Bergenia (aka Elephant's ears)

Primula vulgaris

Helleborus foetidus

Vinca major

Viburnum grandiflorum (smells divine!)

Last but by no means least we have the beautiful Helleborus niger, aka the Christmas Rose partly because of the time it comes into flower and partly because of a folk story. The legend was that a young girl had no gift to give baby Jesus and when her tears hit the snow, the flowers sprouted where they fell. It isn't actually a member of the rose family and belongs to Ranunculaceae so is related to the buttercup!

The pure white flowers are so uplifting on dark days.

A very Happy Christmas to everyone who reads my blog and extra big hugs to those of you who find this time of year challenging for whatever reason.

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About Me

I enjoy many crafts including knitting and crochet but I also love running which I use to raise money for Alzheimer's Research UK in memory of my mum (please read her story below to see why it is so important to me). So far I've raised over £50,000 towards research into this devastating disease.
I ran my first marathon in 2004 at the age of 48. In 2007 I celebrated my 50th birthday by running a series of 5 marathons and 2 ultras. I wanted to do something special at the London marathon to get publicity for ARUK - a friend remarked that I should "act my age and stay at home with my knitting!" So I took my knitting with me to became the first person to knit whilst running a marathon and set the Guinness World Record for "The longest Scarf Knitted Whilst Running a Marathon"! I was also the first person to crochet whilst running a marathon. I have now run 120 marathons (4 whilst knitting, 2 whilst crocheting to set the GWR for "Longest crochet chain whilst running a marathon"). I achieved my 100th marathon 7 months before my 60th birthday in 2017 and also completed 52 marathons in 52 weeks in the process.

Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.